Industry

Can AI Help Gym Owners Determine if a Client is Thinking of Leaving?

April 6, 2022 by
Photo Credit: Corey Ransberg via CrossFit LLC
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Client retention in the fitness industry has always been a point of contention for gym owners, personal trainers and gym goers themselves. Gyms want deliverables in terms of monthly subscriptions, meaning offering longer term memberships is the onus. However consumers are as frantic as ever, switching workout goals and methods at the drop of a hat, and personal trainers are often rotating through clients on a monthly basis.

PushPress, the gym management software company with more than 2,000 gyms on its client roster, is looking to use artificial intelligence (AI) to help gym owners possibly pinpoint when gyms may be about to lose a client. 

  • The first step in the rolling plan is the Churn Model that looks at 159 data points of interaction between the customer and gym with the goal of determining if a client is moving toward quitting the gym. 
  • The goal is for Pressly to identify which members are across the “threshold” and highlight them for the gym owner. At that point, the owner can either personally contact each member or decide to have Pressly offer a free FITAID or something else to get them back in the gym. 

A personal touch: Pressly will provide a list of names of clients that could possibly leave the gym, but the gym owner will make the decision on which one to contact about the potential change. They will have the knowledge that two clients may just be absent for random reasons while another two may have dealt with the loss of a loved one. 

  • “Just imagine if instead of you having to figure that out, at least the starting point is, here’s four people to talk to today,” said PushPress founder Dan Uyemura. “And you can either choose to [talk to them], you can choose not to do it, or you can choose to let Pressley do it for you.”
  • “This person I know just lost a family [member] or a dog. So I’m going to get a card signed by all the members and hand-deliver that to them. I want to take care of that one.”

The full version of Pressly will not be immediately available. Uyemura compared designing software to building a house and using a brand-new technology. The early versions will be more rudimentary, but PushPress will continue to refine them and add more features for clients. 

Hitting those milestones: Another goal for Pressly will be assistance on social media. Gym owners currently have to remember to post on Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms whenever members hit important anniversary dates or celebrate a birthday. This takes time, and there is a scenario where the owner simply forgets due to many other obligations.

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